Budget "good" for residents, says Halesowen MP

THE chancellor’s Budget for “makers, doers and savers” has been welcomed as good for Halesowen and Rowley Regis by the area’s Tory MP.

James Morris said it provided more help for “hard-working people” on low and middle incomes, with an extra 417 low earners in the constituency who will no longer pay income tax.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced yesterday that the income tax threshold will rise by £500 to £10,500.

There was good news for savers and pensioners with reforms to ISAs, premium bonds and the creation of a new pensioner bond, offering interest rates of 2.8 per cent for one year and 4 per cent for three years.

Mr Osborne also announced the scrapping of tax on savings up to £5,000 and removed the obligation to buy an annuity.

Mr Morris said: “This is a good budget for Halesowen and Rowley Regis that has only been possible because of the difficult decisions that the Government has taken to get the deficit under control and get the economy growing again.

A scheme to boost exports by doubling the amount of finance available to businesses to £3 billion was unveiled and tax breaks to boost productivity, exports and manufacturing to support economic recovery were outlined.

Mr Morris added: “There is help for local families and manufacturing firms with action to cut rising energy bills and extra targeted support for energy intensive industries such as Black Country engineering.”